NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – New York City on Monday was marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, including with a gathering of hundreds of Holocaust survivors and the illumination of city buildings.
Mayor Eric Adams said City Hall and other municipal buildings would be lit yellow Monday night to commemorate the day. Other buildings that will be lit up include the borough halls in Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island, as well as the Manhattan Municipal Building.
It was 80 years ago Monday, on Jan. 27, 1945, that some 7,000 people were liberated from the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp in Poland, where Soviet troops arrived at the gates and found the thousands of weak and emaciated prisoners.
The Nazis murdered some 1.1 million people at the site in southern Poland. In all, the regime murdered 6 million Jews from all over Europe, annihilating two-thirds of Europe's Jews and one-third of all Jews worldwide. In 2005, the U.N. designated Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“On this 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we stand at a profound moment in history, where remembrance is not just about the past, but about securing our future,” Adams said in a statement. “As mayor of the city that proudly houses the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, I am deeply moved by the resilience of our Jewish family, while remaining ever mindful of the devastating void left by the Holocaust.”
“In these challenging times, when antisemitism continues to surface in our society, New York City remains steadfast in our commitment to being not just a safe haven, but a beacon of hope for the Jewish community,” the mayor continued. “The yellow lights illuminating our city buildings tonight serve as both a memorial to the 6 million lives lost and a bright reminder of our unwavering solidarity.”
More than 200 Holocaust survivors gathered at the Museum of Jewish Heritage at Battery Park on Monday to mark the day.
The museum’s president and CEO, Jack Kliger, said the survivors’ experiences and stories will live on beyond their lifetimes.
“I’ve never met a greater group of inspirational people—who are willing to face any challenge—than our survivors,” Kliger said.
The museum is also launching a new interactive exhibit, “Survivors Stories: An Interactive Dialog,” which “utilizes non-generative A.I. technology to facilitate conversational Q&A experiences between museum visitors and a group of 10 survivors who pre-taped interviews about their life experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust.” The exhibit is also available online.
Kliger said the exhibit allows for Holocaust survivors “to continue to speak, even when they cannot speak for themselves.”
Among the survivors featured in the exhibit is Toby Levy, 91.
“Eighty years ago, I was in hiding in a barn with my family, and my father believed that someone is going to survive this world and has to tell the world what happened,” Levy said.
Also featured is Alice Ginsburg, 94, who was 13 years old when the Nazis rounded up her family and took her to Auschwitz.
“They tore me away from my mother and sent me to the other side. So she went to the gas chambers, that was her ‘shower,’” Ginsburg said.
Ginsburg survived two other concentration camps before she was liberated.
“That long death march—you build resilience. And I had hoped, I never gave up hope,” she said.
Bronia Brandman, 93, is also included in the exhibit. She and her two sisters fled and hid after her parents were taken away, but the Nazis caught up with them.
“When we arrived in Auschwitz, we were met by a horde of guards with guns and dogs,” Brandman said. “We were told to leave everything behind.”